The 2019

Nigeria Women Premier League The NWFL Premiership (formerly Nigeria Women Premier League) is the top-level league for women's association football in Nigeria. It is the women's equivalent of the Nigeria Professional Football League (NPFL) for male players. The Nigeria Wome ...

began July 24, 2019. The league was earlier scheduled to start in February, but due to logistic reasons and commencement of other competitions, it was postponed to March, May then later July. Prior to the start of the league, a congress was held in

Abuja Abuja (; , ) is the capital city of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, strategically situated at the geographic midpoint of the country within the Federal Capital Territory (Nigeria), Federal Capital Territory (FCT). As the seat of the Federal G ...

on June 27, with representatives from

Nigeria Football Federation The Nigeria Football Federation (known as Nigeria Football Association until 2008) is Nigeria's association football, football sports governing body, governing body. It was formally launched in 1945 and formed the first Nigerian national football ...

. Due to failure of some teams to pay their indemnities, the agreed date at the congress was shifted from July 17 to July 24. At the end of the

2018 Nigeria Women Premier League The 2018 Nigeria Women Premier League began on April 7 in a game featuring defending champions Nasarawa Amazons from Nasarawa State and FC Robo of Lagos State. The date was decided following a congress held in Ikeja on March 3. Prior to the game ...

Pelican Stars Pelican Stars F.C. is a professional women's association football club based in Calabar, Cross River State. Founded in 1990, they play in the Nigeria Women's Football League Championship, the second division for women's football in the country. ...

and Sure Babes were relegated to the lower division while Dream Stars Ladies and Invincible Angels gained promotion to the League.

Bayelsa Queens Bayelsa Queens is a women's football club based in Yenagoa, Bayelsa State, Nigeria. They play in the top tier of the women's football league pyramid in Nigeria. They have won the NWFL Premiership six times and finished runners-up on four occas ...

returns as defending champions, while Kaduna Queens bought the slot of Jokodolu Babes to compete in the elite division. At the end of the regular season,

Confluence Queens Confluence Queens F.C. sometimes referred to as Wada Queens and Kogi Confluence Queens is a Nigerian women's association football club based in Lokoja, Kogi State. They play their home games at Confluence Stadium, and compete in the Nigeria Wom ...

Rivers Angels Rivers Angels F.C. (formerly Larry Angels F.C.) is a Nigerian professional football club based in Port Harcourt, Rivers State in Nigeria. They play in the Nigeria Women Premier League, the top flight in the national female soccer league pyramid ...

and Adamawa Queens topped their group, thereby qualifying for the super 4 competition to determine the overall winner of the league, while Osun Babes, Dream Stars Ladies, Kaduna Queens and Invincible Angels proceed to relegation playoffs.

Format

For the 2019 season, an abridged league format of four groups was adopted with four teams in each group. The top team in each of the four groups will play a super four mini-tournament at the end of the league to determine the overall winner of the league. The last placed team in each group will engage in a playoff to determine the two teams that will be relegated to the lower division.

Major transfers

The league saw the arrival of two Gambian internationals, Penda Bah and Isatou Jallow joining

and Dream Stars Ladies (with Jallow later joining Angels) respectively. Other major transfers included the arrival of 2018 second top scorer, Anjor Major to league winners,

Rofiat Sule Rafiat Folakemi Sule (born 3 August 2000), is a Nigerian professional footballer who plays as a forward at club level for the Bari-based A.S.D. Pink Sport Time, in Italian Serie A. She previously donned the colours of Rivers Angels, and was top ...

, who was the top scorer during the 2016 and 2017 season also moved from

in a deal that is considered as the biggest in the history of Nigerian women club football. In August 2019, former captain of Ghana women's national under-20 football team, Grace Adams signed a year deal with

from a team in the United States.

Non-Nigerian players during 2019 season

Finals table

Group A

Group B

Group C

Group D

Play-off stages

Relegation play-offs

* '' Kaduna Queens and Invincible Angels were relegated to the Pro-league.''

Super 4

Semi-finals

* ''

and

qualified to the

Final Final, Finals or The Final may refer to: *Final examination or finals, a test given at the end of a course of study or training *Final (competition), the last or championship round of a sporting competition, match, game, or other contest which d ...

.''

Third place match

Final

Nigeria Women Pro-league play-offs

Four teams qualified for the promotion playoffs; Olori Babes,

, Police Female Machine, Moje Queens. The four teams would play each other once in a round robin tournament, the two highest ranked teams shall be promoted to the 2020 Nigeria Women Premier League. All matches were played at the

Confluence Stadium Confluence Stadium is a multi-purpose stadium in Lokoja, Kogi State with a 25,000 seating capacity. It is the home ground of Kogi United and Confluence Queens in the Nigeria National League and Nigeria Women Premier League respectively. It was used ...

Lokoja Lokoja is a north-central city in Nigeria. It lies at the confluence of the Niger River, Niger and Benue River, Benue list of rivers of Nigeria, rivers and is the capital city of Kogi State. While the Bassa Nge, Yoruba people, Yoruba Oworo peopl ...

. Round 1 Round 2 Round 3

References

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External links

Nigeria 2019
at RSSF Nigeria Women Premier League seasons N Wom N Wom